Terrifying Intelligence
The departing spacecraft flew like mad, its engines nearly at maximum output, speeding toward the edge of the atmosphere under the cover of those Vulture droid fighters.
Moreover, the spacecraft had chosen its route cleverly, passing right through the blind spot of the blockade ships in the planet's outer orbit.
Once it broke out of the atmosphere, it would very likely shake off its pursuers, make a hyperspace jump, and leave as quickly as possible.
But clearly, the spacecraft's actions had drawn the Republic army's attention. They could never allow a ship that so obviously had something to hide to escape.
More than fifty V-wing fighters took off from the Hunter Class Battlecruisers carrying out the blockade in outer orbit. These new Republic fighters charged toward the spacecraft from several directions at once.
The escorting Vulture droid fighters were quickly all shot down. After realizing it had no chance of leaving the planet's atmosphere, the spacecraft turned toward the thunderstorm zone in the northern hemisphere, seemingly intending to self-destruct amid the storms.
However, after a frantic chase, the spacecraft was finally caught by V-wing fighters diving down from outer space. Before it could plunge into the storm zone and self-destruct, it was struck by missiles and crashed into a jungle.
The Republic army immediately dispatched ground troops to recover the spacecraft, while fighters circled overhead to prevent any further incidents.
Someone did try to escape from inside the spacecraft, but was immediately shot dead by the circling fighters. At the same time, the ground troops moved swiftly, arriving at the crash site less than half an hour after the spacecraft had been shot down and deploying soldiers to begin their search.
After entering the wrecked spacecraft, the soldiers found a severely wounded Kiffar pilot still trying to destroy